The Advancements of the Islamic Empire

  Though there is a difference of a thousand years, society today owes much to the efforts of the people of ancient Islam. Now, in the modern twenty-first century, people read fables about Aladdin and his magic lamp, study algebra at school, and go to the doctors without thinking much of it – a thousand years ago on the Arabian Peninsula, people were passing on stories to one another, discovering algebra, and seeing physicians for diagnoses of illnesses. The Islamic empire introduced many significant innovations into the ancient world in the forms of literature, mathematics, and medicine which are still applied even centuries later.

  The Islamic empire contributed to the world in the form of writing and story-telling. A famous example of Islamic literature is A Thousand and One Nights or otherwise known as the Arabian Nights. “Thousand and One Nights are considered as an entity to be among the classics of world literature.” – (No author available; the Columbia Online Encyclopedia). Originally the stories were told and written in Arabic, but later spread to Europe, where the tales were revised and translated into French by Antoine Galland. Now worldly popular, the stories have been translated German, Spanish, and English. In the 20th century, Western researchers respected the stories as an asset to world culture. Today, even now in the twenty-first Century, the stories of Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and Sinbad the Sailor are still widely read and well-liked.
Islamic advancements have brought much insight in mathematics. Muslims developed many concepts in algebra and geometry branches of mathematics that we use today. “Recent research paints a new picture of the debt that we owe to Arabic/Islamic mathematics. Certainly many of the ideas which were previously thought to have been brilliant new conceptions due to European mathematicians of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are now known to have been developed by Arabic/Islamic mathematicians around four centuries earlier. In many respects the mathematics studied today is far closer in style to that of the Arabic/Islamic contribution than to that of the Greeks.” – (O’Connor and Robertson). The Muslims brought many mathematical theories and methods to Europe. One such example is the Arabic numbering system (now known as algorithms), which eventually replaced the Roman numeral system by the 11th Century. Another innovation in mathematics was the field of algebra (“al-jabr” in Arabic). It was first introduced to the world by Al-Khwarizmi, a famous Muslim mathematician. Other Muslim mathematicians include Al-Batani, Thabit Ibn Qurra, and Al-Buzjani. Al-Batani was a great attribute to geometry. He was the first to study and use sine and cotangents. Thabit Ibn Qurra studied conics such as parabolas and ellipses and helped to create an early outline of calculus. A century after Al-Batani and Thabit Ibn Qurra, Al-Buzjani formed triangle and conic theories based off of their previous work. Also, geometry had a great role in Islamic art. Muslims decorated their mosques and buildings like the Taj Mahal in intricate geometric patterns. The Islamic achievements in mathematics have impacted both the ancient and modern world.

  A Greek could argue that other cultures, too, have shown examples of exemplary literature and mathematics. It is true that the Greeks had the Iliad and the Odyssey, and that Romans built aqueducts with arches, however, the Islamic empire was known and respected for their contributions to society. They improved what the Greeks and Romans had done and brought many more advancements to the world. “By the 10th century, Europeans recognized Muslim intellectual superiority, and quickly began translating Muslim works in such fields as medicine…mathematics,” – (Erica Fraser) Europeans translated Muslim literature pieces and borrowed their ideas on mathematics and medicine. For over a thousand years, the Islamic empire was recognized by European scholars as one of the most civilized and advanced civilizations of the time period.
The Islamic civilization was responsible for many prominent achievements in medicine. They were known to be years ahead of their time. Most major cities in the empire had hospitals that were open twenty-four hours a day and many doctors that worked for free. “Muslim physicians were responsible for many notable developments in the field of medicine. While European “hospitals” at this time were usually simply monasteries where the sick were told they would live or die…Muslim hospitals pioneered the practices of diagnosis, cure, and future prevention.” – (Erica Fraser) There was a great difference between the European and Muslim hospitals. While most European hospitals were simple and had little or no medicinal cures, the Islamic hospitals in Baghdad and Damascus focused on hygiene and healing. Muslim physicians such as Al-Razi, Ibn Sina, and Al-Zahravi made great contributions to medicine. Al-Razi was the first to write a paper clearly on the differences of smallpox and measles. Ibn Sina was the first to ascertain that tuberculosis spread by air and the first to introduce quarantine to stop such diseases from spreading. Another famous physician, Al-Zahravi, was the first to conduct surgery for the eye, ear, and throat and invented numerous surgical tools. In addition to those accomplishments, Muslims also were the first to make accurate diagnosis of the plague, diphtheria, rabies, epilepsy, and other diseases. Evidently, the Islamic empire was one of the most influential pioneers to modern medicine.

  The Islamic empire has significantly influenced the modern world in the forms of literature, mathematics, and medicine. Their works have been translated from Arabic to several languages and referenced all around the globe. The world owes much to their advancements in science/medicines, mathematics, and story-telling.

Bibliography

Fraser, Erica. “The Islamic World to 1600.” The Applied History Research Group. 2001.    University of Calgary. 27 Sept. 2008 <http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/islam/index2.html>.

O’Connor, J. J., and E. F. Robertson. “Arabic mathematics: forgotten brilliance?” The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive. Nov. 1999. 28 Sept. 2008 <http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/histtopics/arabic_mathematics.html>.

Syed, Ibrahim B. “ISLAMIC MEDICINE.” Islam-Usa.com. Ed. Shahid Athar. 28 Sept. 2008 <http://www.islam-usa.com/im4.html>.

Tate, Karen D. “1001 Nights.” Office of Information Technology. University of Tennessee. 27 Sept. 2008 <http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/tales/1001/title.htm>.

“The Thousand and One Nights.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 27 Sep. 2008 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/593514/The-Thousand-and-One-Nights>.

“Thousand and One Nights.” Encyclopedia.com. 2008. The Columbia Encyclopedia. 27 Sept. 2008 <http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1e1-n-1001nigh.html>.